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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
SPENCER: Good, Old-Fashioned Brawls
Someone please spare us another week without a rivalry in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series...
Jimmy Spencer  |  Posted January 07, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Jimmy Spencer calls it like he sees it on SPEED. (Photo: SPEED)
Like a little kid eagerly awaiting a brawl on the school playground, I was hoping Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski would man up and punch each other out at the end of the 2009 season. Someone please spare us another week without a rivalry in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

What happened to the days of Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison? If someone didn’t run their mouth or throw a punch, something was seriously wrong with one of them. Guys from Rusty Wallace, Dale Earnhardt and Geoffrey Bodine’s era weren’t afraid to show their emotions and their disdain for a competitor’s bad judgment on the track, but today’s crop of Cup drivers couldn’t spot a fight, much less a rivalry, if it smacked them upside the head.

Drivers displayed their emotions and anger more even 10 or 12 years ago than they do today. But some now seem complacent with their paychecks and comfortable finishes and just let the water roll off their backs when challenged. These competitors hold their feelings inside for fear of retribution from their corporate sponsors and team owners, but things would be much more interesting if they’d simply go with the flow and express themselves. Let a rivalry take its natural course and don’t try to squash it.

In addition to their role as wheelmen, drivers are millionaire corporate mouthpieces who check their emotions and tongue at the green flag. They’re afraid of their sponsors cracking the whip when they get out of line. After all, sponsors build multi-million dollar marketing and advertising campaigns around these drivers and don’t think they can sell their product at the hands of a Neanderthal. Drivers are supposed to behave like professional businessmen, right?

It wasn’t always this way, but the influx of huge and necessary corporations has magnified these conditions. Additionally, drivers also became more timid a few years ago out of fear for the way NASCAR had handled misdeeds in the past. NASCAR really took the wind out of Tony Stewart’s sails a few years back. He was awesome to watch both on and off the track before NASCAR wielded a little influence with him. The sanctioning body parked Kevin Harvick for showing his intense emotions at Martinsville by intentionally spinning out another competitor and then parking his truck next to the NASCAR hauler in the garage. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the smartest move but it certainly was a gutsy one that attracted a lot of attention.

As someone who really enjoys and respects the sport, I love when drivers trash-talk and get into it after a race. I miss those days and desperately hope we’ll have a rivalry or two stir up soon.

But in NASCAR’s defense, they publicly announced early last year that they intended to relax their grip on drivers a bit, allowing them to display more emotion. They didn’t rebuke Hamlin and Keselowski and pretty much held true to their word. The way I see it, if a driver is mad at a fellow competitor, he should climb out of the car and go straight to that guy to let him know. I guarantee we’d have more interested fans if they saw just how human these drivers can be.

Race attendance was down at times last season, presumably due to economic concerns. What better way to pack the grandstands than for fans to know there’s a good chance a guy will coldcock someone for running over him on the track?

Sure, it’s not politically correct, but it is what helped build NASCAR.

Jimmy Spencer calls it like he sees it as an analyst on NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Victory Lane on SPEED. He retired from driving with two NASCAR Sprint Cup, 12 NASCAR Nationwide and one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory, putting him in an elite group of drivers who have logged wins in all three of NASCAR’s premier divisions. In 478 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, Spencer amassed 28 top-five and 80 top-10 finishes. He won back-to-back NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championships in 1986 and 1987 on the heels of 15 victories, becoming the first driver ever to earn consecutive titles in the series. He earned the nickname “Mr. Excitement” for his flamboyant and aggressive driving style early in his racing career.
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